Honda says troubled China plant up and running

TOKYO: Operations at a Honda parts factory in southern China returned to normal on Tuesday after nearly a week of disruption over a pay dispute, the company said, vowing to continue talks with dissatisfied workers.

The Honda Lock factory in the southern province of Guangdong was one of a string of factories in China -- and the third in the Honda family -- hit by a wave of industrial unrest in the so-called "workshop of the world".

Limited work resumed at the plant on Monday, but some employees had refused to return to their posts, demanding improved pay.

"Operations at the plant have returned to normal," said Hirotoshi Sato, a Honda Lock spokesman based in Miyazaki in southwestern Japan.

Most of the subsidiary's 1,500 employees had agreed to an undisclosed pay rise, he said. For those still seeking a higher salary, the spokesman said the company "promised to continue talks".

Honda Lock supplies car locks and key sets for Japan's number two automaker.

The company last week offered a pay rise of 100 yuan (15 dollars) a month from the current salary of around 1,700 yuan, but workers were demanding more than 2,000 yuan, a local Chinese official said.

The trouble at Honda came after a spate of suicides among Chinese assembly line workers for Taiwanese IT giant Foxconn -- which shone the global spotlight on conditions for China's millions of factory workers.

Honda's auto assembly lines run by its Chinese joint venture Guangqi Honda Automobile have been stalled several times in recent weeks because of labour disputes at its parts manufacturers.

Two other disputes -- at the company's main engine parts plant in Guangdong and at a factory making exhaust and muffler components in the same province -- have been resolved.

Honda has a production capacity of 650,000 vehicles a year in China.

Shares in Honda Motor edged up 0.51 percent in early afternoon trade in Tokyo on Tuesday.